We continue to suffer the negative health effects of pollution in our environment. Although large scale pollution sources, or emitters, appear to be targeted by stricter regulations, widespread and harmful contamination from individual small scale emitters seems largely ignored, yet cumulatively has a significant environmental impact.
An example of small emitters are retail gasoline fuelling station tanks. Based on Canadian Government statistics, the operational evaporative losses from these fuelling stations alone amount to almost 40 million litres per year, which include highly carcinogenic benzene. By extrapolation evaporative losses of about 400+ million litres yearly could be emitted in the United States of America. Therefore, even though small emissions from individual sources (such as from a single gasoline storage tank or soil remediation process) may be viewed as insignificant, implementation of fugitive emission control is imperative for these small emitters to reduce cumulative effect. Unfortunately fugitive emission controls for small emitters are currently lacking, and so the present invention is geared to target this market.
It is known that certain types of ultraviolet (hereinafter “UV”) light can destroy harmful chemical compounds and biological organisms, rendering them virtually harmless and inert. It is believed that organisms are typically prevented from reproducing through destruction of their DNA when exposed to UVC light, while higher UV generated forms of energy can break down bonds of chemical compounds and transform them into environmentally benign substances.
Prior art designs exist that create pathways for fluids (namely gases and/or liquids) and provide a UV light with the intention of treating those fluids as they pass along the pathway. One example of a pathway created with a baffle or tube arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,541 (Noll et al.). However, this patent lacks features critical to effective treatment of fluids, and the types of pathways shown are not optimal for, or are incapable of, exposing the fluid to a desired level of UV light for destruction of both harmful biological organisms and toxic chemical compounds.
Other prior art designs incorporate desirable photoreactive coatings to increase the effectiveness of UV light treatment of contaminated fluids, but again the pathway designs result in sub-optimal exposure to a desired level of UV light, and the surface coatings are not optimized for cost efficient commercial implementation. Some examples are U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,885 (Ritchie) and US patent application 2009/0145855 (Day et al.).
What is therefore desired is a novel apparatus and method for treating contaminated fluids which overcomes the limitations and disadvantages of the existing designs. Preferably, it should provide a single source solution to combat not only harmful biological organisms, but also environmental contamination perpetuated by toxic and noxious aromatic chemical compounds emitted from small scale emitters. It should provide a cost effective compact enclosure complete with inlet/outlet connections, an energy source such as a UV lamp, internal Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) photocatalytic coating (or equivalent photocatalyst), and a specially designed internal baffle system that is removably positioned within the apparatus for ease of removal and alteration if need be. The combination of these features should not only allow for continuous and extended fluid exposure to UV light within the enclosure, but should also confine the maximum distance from the lamp to all internal enclosure coated surfaces in order to achieve a highly effective photocatalytic reaction. In addition, the present invention should also allow for sequential or parallel joining of numerous UV light reactors to achieve increased volume treatment of contaminated fluids entrained either with harmful bacteria, toxic chemicals or noxious aromatic elements.